Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/212

206 Hero of Kandahár bringing up the rear. Both Pollock and Nott were soon forced to blow up and abandon some of the captured guns. Sale's flanking columns cleared the way for Pollock's unhindered retreat to Gandamak; but the columns of McCaskill and Nott had some sharp skirmishing with Ghilzai brigands on their way across the Haft Kotal.

The defences of Jalálábád were destroyed before Pollock received the order to hand that place over intact to the Sikhs. On the march from Dháka to Alí Masjid one of McCaskill's brigades lost in the darkness a gun, which Nott's column next day recovered after a short fight. Nott's engineers completely destroyed the fort of Alí Masjid. By the 7th of November the whole force was encamped on the plains of Pesháwar. Meanwhile another army, assembled at Firozpur under Sir Jasper Nicolls, warned the Sikhs, whose goodwill had long been doubted, against any attempt to hinder the march of our victorious troops across the Punjab.

In the first days of Pollock's halt at Kábul, Lord Ellenborough had amused himself at Simla in drawing up a proclamation which was issued on the 10th, but dated, the 1st of October, as if to challenge direct comparison with Lord Auckland's Manifesto of the 1st of October, 1838. In this memorable State paper he proclaimed his intention to withdraw the British arms from Afghánistán, 'content with the limits nature appears to have assigned to' our Indian Empire.